Nintendo Announces 2013 Wii U Lineup

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Nintendo has announced the 2013 release schedule for the Wii U, but gaming experts are still concerned about how strong the system's roster will actually be come spring.

One major reason to worry is the announcement that four of Nintendo's biggest planned releases, Game & Wario, The Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, and Wii Fit U are vaguely slated for "the first half of the year." Considering the Wii U's already skimpy game lineup, big delays will only hurt sales and frustrate fans.

Gaming site Kotaku points out that "Nintendo hasn't released a...game of its own since the system's Nov. 18 launch and will wind up going as much as four months until it puts out a new one [Lego City Undercover, with Traveller's Tales]."

Kotaku also mentioned that most of 2013's early big multiplatform releases seem to be skipping the console, even though Nintendo promised that the Wii U would have a bigger array of third-party and multiplatform games than its predecessor. This gives the Playstation 3 and Xbxo 360 a big advantage over the fledgling console.

The new console is much more technologically competetive than its predecesor, so the lack of multiplatform releases seems to be more an issue of business and timing. Considering the fact that major releases like Mass Effect 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Assassin's Creed III are already available for the system, it's likely that most of these games will be rereleased later in 2013.

Whether future releases will be consistent with those for PS3 and Xbox 360 remains to be seen. However, strong exclusive titles like Monster Rancher 3 and Rayman Legends should help the console stay afloat until more third-party support and more highly-anticipated Nintendo games become available.